Fanboy Favorite Webcomic Five for 2005

[forsyth]

So, it's the end of the year, and everybody's compulsively making lists, so here's mine. These are completely subjective, and are reflective of which comics I've enjoyed the most that I'm still reading, rather than trying to make artistic judgements. Because I'm just a fanboy. And they're not really in any sort of order, just the order they came to mind. And they're not followed so much by reviews as by the train of my thought chasing what makes them shiny to me.

1) Girl Genius

I've been an utter Foglio fanboy since I saw Phil's art on Magic cards and in What's New, and Girl genius is not just pretty, but has all sorts of fun pulpy mad science madness. And thrice a week is SO much better than three-ish times a year. But you all know that, because you already read it, right?

2) Digger

All of Ursula's stuff is just enticingly weird. And then Digger gets plopped in the middle of all this weirdness, with her no-nonsense demeanor and armored rump. There's vampiric squash. Dude.

3) A Miracle of Science

I'm a sucker for mad science, as you might have noticed. I'm also a sucker for optimistic SF where the world's full of nifty toys. And melodrama. And railguns emblazoned with unicorns and rainbows. Well, maybe not so much the latter, but it made me laugh. Space opera and mad science combined make me a happy fanboy.

4) Narbonic

Can't talk about mad science without mentioning Narbonic, now can we? I think enough pixels have died in the descriptions of Narbonic here and elsewhere, so I'll say no more.

5) Killroy and Tina / Reckless Life


Yes, I'm cheating by sticking two comics in. But part of what I enjoy about both of them is the heavily overlapping forums, where I can go and pester either or both Tim and Justin. And I mean, Killroy and Tina has things like this background made from a panel of one strip, and Reckless Life has ninja hookers and other hijinks. And I can justify putting them on the same level, since I'm a big enough nerd I wrote a crossover fanfic for the two of them. Heh.

Honorable Mention: Fables from the Morning After

Unfortunately, it stopped updating, and wasn't exactly a webcomic anyway, though at first the author billed it as a "webcomic without pictures", but it's amazing and I wish he were going to do the second part he had planned out. Ah well. Go read what's there anyway.

Feel free to hijack the comments thread for your chosen shenanigans.

(crossposted to snarkoleptics)